Brice of Tours

Saint Brice of Tours (Latin: Bricius) (c. 370 – 444 AD) was the fourth Bishop of Tours, succeeding Martin of Tours in 397.

According to legend, Brice was an orphan rescued by Martin and raised in the monastery at Marmoutiers. He later became Martin's pupil, although the ambitious and volatile Brice was rather the opposite of his master.

As Bishop of Tours, Brice performed his duties, but was also said to succumb to worldly pleasures. After a nun in his household gave birth to a child that was rumored to be his, he performed a ritual by carrying hot coal in his coat to the grave of Martin, showing his unburned coat as proof of his innocence. The people of Tours, however, did not believe him and forced him to leave Tours; he could return only after he had travelled to Rome and had been absolved of all his sins by the Pope.

After seven years of exile in Rome, Brice returned to Tours when the administrator he had left in his absence died. He was a changed man. Upon returning, he served with such humility that on his death he was venerated as a saint. His memorial day is 13 November. The killing of the Danes in England on 13 November 1002 is called the St Brice's Day massacre.

Tours

Tours (French pronunciation: ​[tuʁ]) is a city located in the centre-west of France. It is the administrative centre of the Indre-et-Loire department and the largest city in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France (although it is not the capital, which is the region's second-largest city, Orléans). In 2012, the city of Tours had 134,978 inhabitants, while the population of the whole metropolitan area was 483,744.

Tours stands on the lower reaches of the River Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. The surrounding district, the traditional province of Touraine, is known for its wines, for the alleged perfection (as perceived by some speakers) of its local spoken French, and for the Battle of Tours, which took place in 732. The city is also the end-point of the annual Paris–Tours cycle race.

History

In Gallic times the city was important as a crossing point of the Loire. Becoming part of the Roman Empire during the 1st century AD, the city was named "Caesarodunum" ("hill of Caesar"). The name evolved in the 4th century when the original Gallic name, Turones, became first "Civitas Turonum" then "Tours". It was at this time that the amphitheatre of Tours, one of the five largest amphitheatres of the Empire, was built. Tours became the metropolis of the Roman province of Lugdunum towards 380–388, dominating the Loire Valley, Maine and Brittany. One of the outstanding figures of the history of the city was Saint Martin, second bishop who shared his coat with a naked beggar in Amiens. This incident and the importance of Martin in the medieval Christian West made Tours, and its position on the route of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a major centre during the Middle Ages.